Monthly Archives: November 2016

Friday of Week 34 in Ordinary Time (Year II)
Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Virgin, Martyr
Apocalypse 20:1-4,11-21:2 | Psalm 83(84):3-6,8 | Luke 21:29-33

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. (Luke 21:33)

We’re almost at the end of Ordinary Time, and today’s reading and Gospel naturally focus on the end times. Jesus reminds us that our very existence is limited, but His Word has always been and will forever be.

So it’s up to us to make the all-important choice: listen to His Word and act on it, or ignore it and pay the price on Judgement Day.

And the time we have left to make that choice…may be shorter than we think.

Thursday of Week 34 in Ordinary Time (Year II)
Saints Andrew Dũng-Lạc and his Companions, Martyrs
Apocalypse 18:1-2,21-23,19:1-3,9 | Psalm 99(100):2-5 | Luke 21:20-28

When [the signs of the end times] begin to take place, stand erect, hold your heads high, because your liberation is near at hand. (Luke 21:28)

Eschatological literature – that which talks about the End Times – is generally disturbing, probably because it reminds us about our impending death, when it’s too late to right the many wrongs we may have committed over our existence.

But shouldn’t it be appreciated instead, as a warning that our time here is limited, so we’d best get on with whatever we need to get done?

✞ ✞ ✞ ✞ ✞

Anyone who’s seen me knows I’m no spring chicken, and I’m slowly but surely feeling the effects of wear and tear on my frame. Daily exercise only serves to retard the effects; they’ll never fully reverse them, nor do I expect it to.

So I now go through each day knowing with blessed certainty that my travels here will come to an end, and that I’ll have only a short time left to practice what I preach. (And let’s be honest: It really feels like I’m preaching all through my blog, doesn’t it?)

“Wah biang eh, this guy very preachy man!”

If there’s one thing I’ve learned thus far in my faith journey, it’s this: There’s no reason to be ashamed of our faith in God, when our words and deeds are in agreement.

I said it yesterday, but I think it bears repeating: When we profess a faith that is contradicted by our actions, we have no right to be surprised when we’re attacked as Catholics for our hypocrisy. After all, when we claim to love all, we jolly well better show love to all, especially the lowly in our lives.

And when we fall short, there’s really only one Catholic (universally correct) response: Reconciliation (from the Latin reconciliare, literally “to bring back together”).

As Catholics, we’re called upon to:

• Reconcile our words and deeds, bringing them back into agreement.
• Reconcile ourselves with those whom we’ve hurt and offended, bringing us back together with thoughtful words and actions.
• Reconcile ourselves with those who’ve rightly criticized us, bringing us back together with heartfelt contrition for the hurt we’ve caused, thus convincing them of the rightness of our belief.
• Reconcile ourselves with our Heavenly Father, letting Him bring us back to Him through the instrument of this precious yet dreaded Sacrament.

Jesus may have reminded us to stand tall when Judgement Day arrives, but in Truth, we should be able to stand erect and hold our heads high every day, not with personal pride, but with the knowledge that we’re doing everything in our power to bring God’s kingdom to earth through our thoughts, words and deeds.

And if we can’t do so, it behooves us to reflect on the “why not”, and make the necessary corrections.

Interesting message, pity about the violence.

Amen.

Wednesday of Week 34 in Ordinary Time (Year II)
Apocalypse 15:1-4 | Psalm 97(98):1-3,7-9 | Luke 21:12-19

Keep this carefully in mind: you are not to prepare your defence, because I myself shall give you an eloquence and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to resist or contradict. (Luke 21:14-15)

Brothers and sisters, when your faith is challenged by those who would seek to discredit you, how do you react?

Does your brain immediately kick into high gear, mentally grinding through all those long-forgotten catechism lessons from childhood or later? Does your body start pumping adrenaline to “power up” your body for spiritual battle?

Or do you relax and let something beyond your logical mind give you the words and deeds to address your detractors?

✞ ✞ ✞ ✞ ✞

I’ve written before about my oldest friend who’s quite the atheist, and how I’m grateful to God for bringing him into my life to poke some life into my faith. Now, though, I noticed that he doesn’t poke me much any more, and I think I know why.

He’s known that I’m a cradle Catholic for almost as long as he’s known me. Honestly, I wasn’t much of a Catholic back then, and even less so when our paths converged again during my college days.

In hindsight, he usually pokes me more often during the days when I struggled to live a proper Catholic life, as if he sensed my vulnerability.

But on the days when, as St. Patrick eloquently put it, I feel Christ before/behind/above/below/all around me, something in the way I carry myself, or the kindness and consideration I show to everyone around me, causes him to desist.

Lately, he’s been awfully quiet, which I suppose is a good thing.

✞ ✞ ✞ ✞ ✞

I think the same can be said for anyone facing criticism for believing in God, or anyone on the receiving end of a bully for that matter. Odds are good that whoever’s attacking us has sensed our vulnerability in matters of faith, and is naturally moving in for the kill. After all, only a fool would attack the shield of a strong opponent.

Perhaps he’s noticed us treating the hawker center cleaners with disdain (“Hallo, uncle, why you clean that table when I’m waiting over here?!”),

or studiously avoiding eye contact with the elderly tissue seller in the MRT station,

or something similar that points to a disparity between the love we profess and the mercy we don’t show,

all while a shiny crucifix dangles impotently around our neck.

Perhaps we focus too much on the trappings of our faith, on making a big production of going to Sunday mass (“wah, God, I’m making a HUGE sacrifice here you know, moving all my appointments around to accomodate You!”),

and too little time actually practising our faith, performing frequent works of mercy like giving up our seats on crowded transports, or being polite and cheerful to those who serve us each day,

to the point that they become second-nature to us, and therefore become our natural state, in blessed harmony with the Lord of Love.

✞ ✞ ✞ ✞ ✞

In today’s Gospel, Christ Himself promised to provide us with the necessary eloquence and wisdom to counter our opponents. I can think of no more eloquent or wise way to silence our critics, than to embody His mercy in our daily lives, to don the mantle of God’s grace in thought, word and deed.

So let us not be self-conscious about our belief in the God that the world has always rejected. Instead, let us overflow with unconscious love in our hearts, and channel it through our hands into merciful deeds, so that our tongues may be naturally loosened with the joy of proclaiming the all-consuming grace that is the I AM.

Amen.

Tuesday of Week 34 in Ordinary Time (Year II)
Saint Cecilia, Virgin, Martyr
Apocalypse 14:14-19 | Psalm 95(96):10-13 | Luke 21:5-11

Today’s reading mentions “sharp sickle” twice, in reference to the Great Harvest of the End Times: Christ reaping the “wheat” of those who believe in Him and adhere to His commands, and the angel of the vine reaping the “grapes” of sinners, to be pressed till their blood floods the land.

We too could use “sharp sickles” in our lives, particularly when it comes to cutting ourselves off from sinful behaviour.

✞ ✞ ✞ ✞ ✞

Just last year, I was introduced to a fascinating word: recidivism. It’s a fancy way to refer to a relapse into criminal behaviour, especially after the original behaviour had been addressed through counseling or a prison term.

We like to call recidivists “repeat offenders” and often treat them with disdain, yet if we were honest with ourselves, we’d probably admit that we too succumb to recidivism. We are quick to condemn people with long criminal records as “hopeless cases”, yet I’ve heard several priests comment (without breaking the seal of the confessional) that some folks confess the same sins over and over again, and I’m sure every priest has the same story to tell about the “hopeless cases” who are you and me.

But there’s always hope – Christ has promised that he’s always here to help us get over our sinful inclinations. We just have to overcome our base human nature to slide into repetitive sin through laziness and inattention.

After many personal trials, I’ve settled on a method which sports the unfortunate abbreviation RUST, but seems to be quite effective, at least for me:

• Recognize my sinful behaviour. This is exactly what we’re urged to do as part of confession, and is in fact the first step in just about every self-help program out there.
• Understand the root cause of my sinful behaviour. This requires deep reflection and honesty with myself, and can sometimes be quite painful. Having someone else as a “sounding board” often helps.
• Substitute the root cause with something that’s a better use of the time otherwise spent on my sinful behaviour.
• Terminate any association with the root cause. This…can be tricky.

For instance, I recently recognized that I get angry and frustrated quite easily, and I get especially short-tempered with family.

After much pondering, I understood that I was spending far too much time drinking at the cesspool that my Facebook feed has become, and becoming spiritually “poisoned” in the process (when Catholics can get quite rude with each other in a Catholic group, there’s indeed trouble in paradise).

So I substituted Facebook time with more time reading scripture…and writing this blog. I’m now at the point where I barely get on Facebook any more.

Unfortunately, I can’t quite bring myself to terminate my Facebook account right now. Perhaps someday soon, but not just yet – I’m still using the service to share my daily musings, after all.

✞ ✞ ✞ ✞ ✞

Very often, we convince ourselves that once we’ve recognized our faults, we can simply correct them and all will be right as rain. We like to think that we can maintain our resistance to sin by sheer willpower, so we don’t have to actually remove the temptations from our lives.

It’s been said that the devil’s greatest trick was to convince mankind that he doesn’t exist. Our greatest trick is to fool ourselves into believing that we won’t fall to the same temptation twice.

Let’s stop kidding ourselves, and remove as much temptation as we can from our lives. Prisoners are often advised to cut all ties with their former associates after they’re released; we too should apply a “sharp sickle” to our sinful attachments.

Amen.

The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Zechariah 2:14-17 | Luke 1:46-55 | Matthew 12:46-50

This memorial, like many others, escaped my attention till today. As I work my way around the liturgical calendar, I’m discovering that certain feasts fire the artistic imagination more than others; aside from the Holy Trinity, it seems like the Blessed Virgin Mary is a major inspiration to the visual arts. One need only peruse Margaret Duffy’s catalog of paintings on the Presentation of the Virgin to be amazed at the many interpretations that artists have lavished on this apocryphal event.

I also had a ringside seat yesterday at Church of the Holy Spirit’s celebration with about 100 young children receiving their First Holy Communion. As I watched them process in their white garments, I couldn’t help but wonder which ones would eventually dedicate their lives to God, as I’d imagine St. Joachim and St. Anne had in mind when they watched their beloved daughter ascend the steps to the Temple in Jerusalem, not knowing what God had already planned for her.

And then I wondered: How would I present myself to God?

✞ ✞ ✞ ✞ ✞

Has it crossed your minds, brothers and sisters, that we in effect re-present ourselves to God at the dawn of each day?

As we continue with our daily labor, do we think “I do all this in Your name, Lord, may it be pleasing to you”, or “look, I just want to get this crap over and done with, and where’s that report I asked for AN HOUR AGO?!?!”

And as we watch our favorite TV shows at the end of an exhausting day, do we picture ourselves in cahoots with the on-screen protagonists, kicking annoying-colleague butt and committing mental adultery with sexy actors/actresses, burying ourselves in lurid fantasies about how life would be so much better if everyone recognized and obeyed us?

Or do we lift our our aches and pains to God, our frustrations and worries, in the knowledge born of hope and faith in Christ Jesus that we can start anew the next day, trying new ways of dealing with our obstacles, mending fences with those whom we shouted down?

Do we present ourselves as tyrants like King Herod,

or humble servants like the Lord of love?

Do we keep looking back at all the people whom we think hate us,

or down at our many spiritual wounds, some self-inflicted,

or (like the young Mary) forward to a renewed commitment to all that is good and holy, and positive engagement with our fellow humans?